Programme for Institutional Support of the BHC

Contact persons:
Krassimir Kanev, chairman

Yuliana Metodieva, editor-in-chief of Obektiv magazine

The programme for institutional support of the Bulgarian Helsinki Committee (which also includes a Publishing Programme) has operated since 1993 with the support of Open Society Institute - Budapest. Support for the BHC's institutional development allows the committee to develop and strenghten the different aspects of its main activity - monitoring and protection of human rights. This allows us to develop our projects and initiatives into specialised two- and three- year programmes or to develop them into autonomous entitites.

The Institutional Support Programme provides the necessary support and technical assistance to all our on-going activities, it organises the human rights monitoring in the different spheres and carries out investigations into alleged human rights violations.

It is also responsible for the coordination of all the activities of committee, for the organisation of the public events, for the monitoring in priority areas and for researches into human rights violations. The Institutional Support Programme has the primary responsibility for fundraising for the BHC.

The programme publishes the monthly magazine Obektiv (since March 1994). In June 2004 the mazagine was awarded Ist prize for print media devoted to interethnic tolerance at the International Media Festival in Albena 2004.

Obektiv is the platform through which the committee makes its positions and findings about the human rights situation in Bulgaria public. Obektiv informs on a wide spectrum of current human rights problems like police brutality, freedom of expression, freedom of religion, ethnocultural rights of minorities, rights of the child, conditions in closed institutions, fair trial, changes in domestic legislation, human rights issues around the world. Click here to see latest English-language editions of the mazagine.

Legal Defence Programme

Contact person:
Svilen Ovcharov,
attorney-at-law
Legal advisor

Since its establishment in 1995, advocacy before domestic and international courts in cases of human rights violations has been a main component of the BHC Legal Defence Programme. The Legal Defence Programme has pioneered various legal victories, in the country or abroad, in fields like civil claims against the police; decisions of the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) and the Committee of Ministers of the CoE, the International Labour Organisation, etc. The programme's strategic litigation aims to bring Bulgarian legislation in line with international standards and to stimulate a better understanding of human rights standards among practising lawyers. The programme also prepares amicus curiae briefs before the Constitutional Court of the Republic of Bulgaria (available in Bulgarian only) in cases which pose human rights problems.

In certain cases, the Legal Defence Programme can provide legal aid if it is considered that basic human rights and fundamental freedoms are violated. The aid is free-of-charge and it consists of legal counselling and/or procedural representation before the domestic courts and the ECtHR in the following cases:
-- excessive use of force by law enforcement officials;
-- human rights violations in the closed institutions;
-- restrictions of the freedom of expression;
-- restrictions of the right to profess a religion;
-- restrictions of the right of peaceful assembly;
-- restrictions of the right to a fair trial;
-- unlawful discrimination;
-- restrictions of the right of a fair trial.

Please, send your written questions addressed to P.O. Box 146, 1504 Sofia or to the electronic address of the Bulgarian Helsinki Committee, for the attention of Mr. Svilen Ovcharov. Only copies of the relevant documents are accepted. Please, specify if you would like to receive the copies of these documents back. You will receive written notification if the BHC will be in a position to provide legal aid within 30 days.

Due to the extremely high number of requests for legal aid, the Legal Defence Programme is not able to provide such in all cases. The Programme does not grant legal help and does not take up a position in the following cases:
-- property or restitution disputes;
-- social accommodation;
-- pensions or any other social benefits;
-- labour disputes;
-- disputes about rent contracts or any other contractual rights.

Closed Institutions Programme

Contact person:
Stanimir Petrov,
coordinator

The Bulgarian Helsinki Committee has had a lasting engagement to the places for detention since 1997 when it launched a project for monitoring the prisons and juvenile correction facilities. In the following years the focus was widened to cover all places of compulsory detention in the country today: prisons and prison hostels, police and investigation detention facilities, psychiatric institutions, social institutions for adults with mental disabilities, and juvenile correction facilities (labour educational schools and social pedagogical boarding schools).

The programme's main aim is to ensure systematic monitoring of the closed institutions in Bulgaria in order to establish the compliance of the conditions in them with the UN standards and the European understanding of human rights and to asist the birning in line of the conditions in them with the European standards.

The committee researchers are engaged in systematic monitoring in closed institutions and investigate gross human rights violations in the following types of institutions: prisons and prison hostels, police and investigation detention facilities, juvenile correction facilities, psychiatric institutions and social care institutions across the country.

The engagement of the Bulgarian Helsinki Committee in the social care institutions for mentally disabled adults lead to structural changes in this sphere and to a substantial international and local interest to this acute problem.

Refugees and Migrants Legal Protection Programme

Contact person:
Iliana Savova,
director

The Refugees and Migrants Legal Protection Programme has existed since 1994. It is supported mainly by the United Nations HIgh Commissioner for Refugees and works in cooperation with the State Agency for Refugees at the Council of Ministers.

The programme offers legal consultations, representation and attorney defense to approximately 5,000 people annually, it takes part in the development of the refugee and migrational policy of Bulgaria, assists for the successful integration of refigees in Bulgaria, as well as for their dignified return to their countries of origin.

The Programme offers free specialised legal consultations. MOre specifically, the programme staff are engaged in: representation in refugee status determination proceedings, professional and independent legal defence, defence before the courts and other state institutions, assistance for successful integration, assistance for voluntary repatriation.

The Programme operates in a separate office. It is located at 5 Angel Kanchev Street, 1000 Sofia, tel. 3592 981 3318 and 3592 980 2049.

Strategic Litigation Against Racial Discrimination Project - Joint project of the Bulgarian Helsinki Committee and the European Roma Rights Centre - Budapest

Contact person:
Margarita Ilieva,
legal consultant

The joint project of the BHC and the European Roma Rights Centre - Budapest (ERRC) was launched in the autumn of 2002. Its main task is to file strategic lawsuits against racial discrimination of Roma in the exercise of their social and economic rights (in the sphere of education, housing, employment, healthcare and social services) before the domestic courts.

Another activity in the framework of the project was connected with the process of advocacy for the adoption of the Protection from Discrimination Act and activities for its popularisation. At the end of 2002 a coalition of 5 organisations was formed, later expanded to 37 organisations of ethnic and religious minorities, women's rights groups, organisations of people with disabilities and of consumers, organisations of sexual minorities, that backed the draft anti-discrimination act.